Center for Human Rights, Gender & Migrations Student Advisory Council

If you are a current student at Washington University in St. Louis interested in joining our Student Advisory Council or if you would like to learn about future opportunities with the Center, take our student interest survey.

Our center is seeking Student Advisory Council Members for the 2023-24 academic year. Email us at centerforhumanrights@wustl.edu or complete our interest survey by September 8 to apply.

Current Council Members

Lily Coll

Junior, Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies

Read bio

Lily Coll is an undergraduate junior at Washington University in St. Louis. Lily is a pre-medical student majoring in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies with a minor in Biology. She currently works as a Public Health Research Assistant for Dr. Lindsay Stark at the Brown School for Social Work and as a peer tutor at the WashU Writing Center. In her free time, Lily volunteers at Planned Parenthood as a clinic escort and writes for Frontiers Magazine, a bi-semester health publication. Her interests include reproductive and sexual health, literature, and history. Lily joined the Student Advisory Council in the fall of 2022.

Genevieve Fried

First year, School of Law

Read bio

Genevieve Fried is a first-year law student at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law and a recipient of the Scholar in Law Award. Previously, she worked as a policy fellow for Senator Coons within his Judiciary team and as a legislative assistant for Congresswoman Castor, where she handled the tax, judiciary, consumer protection, trade, and technology and commerce portfolio. Genevieve also worked at the government advisory firm Richard Attias & Associates, where she consulted on the green transition, sustainable economic development, digital transformation, and peace and diplomacy. She earned a bachelor’s degree from McGill University in Computer Science and Political Science. She is committed to protecting human rights and supporting the wellbeing of those who lack political and economic capital.

Wafa Kazmi

School of Law

Bio

Wafa Kazmi is a JD/LLM in Dispute Resolution candidate at WashU. Her research on the impact of migration on women’s health has examined the impact of the Iraq War (2003) on women in Baghdad, transit inequities faced by migrant women in Houston, immigration issues faced by victims of domestic violence, and more recently, she was a researcher for the CRSV Ethiopia Report.  

Hannah Kinzer

PhD student, Public Health Sciences

Read bio

Hannah Kinzer is pursuing her PhD in Public Health Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. She previously completed her MPH at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health and her undergraduate studies in biology at Lawrence University. Her research focuses on equity and communication in infectious disease prevention. Her interests are informed by her work in immunobiology, epidemiologic surveillance, community-based participatory projects, and health communication research. Outside of her studies and research, you can find Hannah running, volunteering at community events, and trying new recipes.

Mary Lupo

Graduate student, International Affairs

Read bio

Mary currently works for the Healthy Mind Lab at WashU School of Medicine. She manages IRB protocols, runs the lab’s social media, creates plain language consent forms and summaries, and helps the lab to maintain ethical compliance. She has studied seven languages and holds two bachelor’s degrees from the University of Missouri – Columbia in International Studies and Political Science.
Mary carries non-profit experience from her work with Health Literacy Media. She also served as co-chair of the Central Missouri Stop Human Trafficking Coalition. Additionally, she volunteered and interned at the Refugee and Immigration Services in Columbia, Missouri.

Nandu Meshram

Graduate student, Masters of Public Health

Read bio

Nandu Meshram is a passionate, mission driven oral health professional with keen interest in cancer prevention and control. Simultaneously, he is a health activist fighting for health equity and accessible cancer care for tribal and marginalized communities in India.

Nandu established an NGO, Society for Oral Cancer and Health, which aims to prevent cancer through prevention strategies. He has completed training in global tobacco control leadership at Johns Hopkins and Global Health Delivery Intensive Program at Harvard University. Additionally, he was selected as a global scholar (2016) by American Cancer Society.

Previously, he worked as a dentist, district tobacco consultant and district program coordinator (NCDs) in the public health department in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra, India.

Tiffany Middlemas

Third year, School of Law

Read bio

Tiffany Middlemas is a third year student at WashULaw, where she serves as Vice President of the Student Bar Association and as a Senior Executive Editor on the Washington University Law Review. She graduated from Truman State University in 2020 with a degree in Comparative Social Science. After graduation, she will join Jones Day Chicago as an associate. In her free time, Tiffany enjoys reading, watching classic movies, and playing Dungeons and Dragons.

Keren Murillo Umpierrez

First year, School of Law

Read bio

Keren Murillo Umpierrez is a first year law student from Philadelphia. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor’s in Political Science and Latin American and Latino Studies.

As an undergraduate, Keren interned in a variety of immigration-related roles among which she drafted extreme hardship waivers, analyzed the intersection of criminal and immigration law, and published an article for licensing undocumented drivers on RealClearPolicy. She then spent several years working as a business immigration legal assistant at Landau, Hess, Simon, Choi & Doebley in Philadelphia.

Keren’s work experience coupled with her personal journey as an immigrant, from Israel to Colombia and from Colombia to the United States, where she lived as an undocumented American for thirteen years, has made her passionate and dedicated to the Center for Human Rights, Gender & Migration’s mission. 

Riley Novak

Sophomore, Global Studies and Spanish

Read bio

Riley Novak is a sophomore at WashU from Phoenix, Arizona, double-majoring in Global Studies and Spanish in the College of Arts and Sciences. On campus, she works as a tour guide and volunteers with Legacies for Immigrants and Refugees, as well as BeatTherapy. Riley is passionate about immigration and social justice issues, and she hopes to attend law school after graduation. She is looking forward to getting involved with the Center for Human Rights, Gender and Migration, and furthering her knowledge of refugee communities across the world and their experiences. 

Shelby Sack

Graduate student, Occupational Therapy

Read bio

Shelby is from Kansas City, Missouri and received a BA in Psychology from DePaul University in Chicago. At DePaul, she worked with many student and community organizations, but primarily Compassionate Care Network and Erie Neighborhood House. She worked on teams to expand affordable healthcare access to underserved communities and engaged in ESL conversations with immigrant and low-income families.

Shelby is currently a student of occupational therapy at Washington University in St. Louis with an interest in community-based work, specifically work with survivors of sexual violence and displaced persons to help them engage or re-engage in occupations they find meaningful.

Lawson Sadler

First year, School of Law

Read bio

Lawson is a first-year law student who joined the Student Advisory Council in fall 2022. Prior to attending law school, Lawson studied on a Marshall Scholarship in the United Kingdom, receiving an MSc in International Social and Public Policy at the London School of Economics and an MA in Migration and Global Development at the University of Sussex. Her work in migration began as an undergraduate at Baylor University and in San Antonio, working for community leaders supporting asylum seekers. Lawson is pursuing a career in public interest law, focusing on the intersection of migration, criminal justice, and global governance. 

Kris Sturm

Second year, School of Law

Read bio

Kris Sturm is a second-year law student who currently works for the Lowenstein Project in affiliation with the WashU Crimes Against Humanity Initiative under Professor Leila Sadat, where he advocates for the passage of a Convention on Crimes Against Humanity. He has traveled to the U.N. to facilitate this work and produce a country report on the current positions of nations. Additionally, Kris works for the WashU Immigration Clinic representing asylum seekers.

In the past, Kris has worked for the Refugee Appeals Authority of South Africa, assisting in the adjudication of asylum appeals.